India vs South Africa ODI Head-to-Head: Record & Results

South Africa have won 52 of the 97 one-day internationals between the two sides and India 42, with three no results and no tie. It is one of only three fifty-over rivalries India are behind in over a large sample, alongside Australia and Pakistan, and the reason sits in one column: in South Africa the record reads 26-12 to the hosts across forty matches.

The corrective is more recent than the ledger suggests. India have won seven of the last ten meetings, have taken two of the last three bilateral series in South Africa, and have won their last three World Cup matches against South Africa after losing the first three. The one-day fixture also holds the single most-quoted innings either side has played against the other: Sachin Tendulkar's 200 not out at Gwalior on 24 February 2010, the first double century in one-day international cricket.

The fixture began in November 1991, when South Africa's first international after readmission was a one-day international at Kolkata against India. It is therefore older than the Test rivalry by a year, and both records began in the same eighteen-month window.

Ninety-seven matches, and the away column

To the third match at Visakhapatnam on 6 December 2025.

Venue type	Matches	India won	South Africa won	No result	Span
In India	35	20	15	0	1991-2025
In South Africa	40	12	26	2	1992-2023
Neutral	22	10	11	1	1992-2019
All ODIs	97	42	52	3	1991-2025

Eight further fixtures never produced a match — four abandoned and four cancelled without a ball bowled — which is why 105 were scheduled and 97 played.

The three rows tell three different stories. At home India are comfortable enough, 20-15, and have not lost a home series to South Africa since 2015-16. On neutral ground the record is almost exactly level at 10-11. In South Africa it is 12-26, and twenty-one of those twenty-six defeats came before 2018.

Decade by decade

Decade	Matches	India won	South Africa won	No result
1990s	30	9	20	1
2000s	27	11	15	1
2010s	27	15	11	1
2020s (to Dec 2025)	13	7	6	0

The 1990s are the decade that created the deficit: nine wins from thirty, at a time when the fixture was played constantly in Sharjah, Nairobi and South Africa and rarely in India. Since 2010 the record is 22-17 to India, which is close to the reverse of the first two decades.

The volume has also fallen sharply. Thirty matches in the 1990s, thirteen in the six years to December 2025 — the same contraction the fifty-over format has seen everywhere, and one traced in more detail on the India ODI history page.

Two series wins in South Africa

Season	Host	Matches	Result
1991-92	India	3	India won 2-1
1992-93	South Africa	7	South Africa won 5-2
1996-97	India	1	India won
1999-2000	India	5	India won 3-2
2005-06	India	4	Drawn 2-2
2006-07	South Africa	4	South Africa won 4-0
2009-10	India	3	India won 2-1
2010-11	South Africa	5	South Africa won 3-2
2013-14	South Africa	3 (1 no result)	South Africa won 2-0
2015-16	India	5	South Africa won 3-2
2017-18	South Africa	6	India won 5-1
2021-22	South Africa	3	South Africa won 3-0
2022-23	India	3	India won 2-1
2023-24	South Africa	3	India won 2-1
2025-26	India	3	India won 2-1

Fifteen bilateral engagements, fifty-eight matches, India 27 wins to South Africa's 30. India have won eight of the fifteen, South Africa six, and the 2005-06 rubber in India finished 2-2.

The six-match series of February 2018 is the outstanding Indian result in the fixture and one of the best any touring side has managed in South Africa: 5-1, with Virat Kohli making 558 runs across the series and Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav sharing thirty-three wickets between them. India's other series win there, 2-1 in December 2023, came with a squad missing most of the side that had reached the World Cup final six weeks earlier.

The 2025-26 series in India was the most recent, and the most productive with the bat: India won at Ranchi by 17 runs after making 349 for 8, lost at Raipur by four wickets despite 358 for 5, then took Visakhapatnam by nine wickets.

At World Cups: three defeats, then three wins

Tournament	Date	Ground	Result
World Cup 1992	15 Mar 1992	Adelaide	South Africa won by 6 wickets
World Cup 1999	15 May 1999	Hove	South Africa won by 4 wickets
ICC KnockOut 2000	13 Oct 2000	Nairobi (Gym)	India won by 95 runs
Champions Trophy 2002	25 Sep 2002	Colombo (RPS)	India won by 10 runs
World Cup 2011	12 Mar 2011	Nagpur	South Africa won by 3 wickets
Champions Trophy 2013	6 Jun 2013	Cardiff	India won by 26 runs
World Cup 2015	22 Feb 2015	Melbourne	India won by 130 runs
Champions Trophy 2017	11 Jun 2017	The Oval	India won by 8 wickets
World Cup 2019	5 Jun 2019	Southampton	India won by 6 wickets
World Cup 2023	5 Nov 2023	Eden Gardens	India won by 243 runs

Ten meetings at ICC events, India seven, South Africa three. The World Cup sub-record is 3-3, and it splits neatly: India lost in 1992, 1999 and 2011, and won in 2015, 2019 and 2023. The Melbourne match of 2015 ended a run of three World Cup defeats and is covered on the 2015 World Cup page; the 243-run win at Kolkata in November 2023, the widest margin in the fixture, is on the 2023 World Cup page, along with the Eden Gardens ground's own record on its Kolkata records page.

India have never lost to South Africa in the Champions Trophy or its predecessor, winning in 2000, 2002, 2013 and 2017. Those four results are set out with the rest on the Champions Trophy history page.

Away from ICC events the neutral-ground record is much worse. In the Sharjah tournaments, the Titan Cup, the Kenyan tri-series and the other multi-team events of the 1990s and 2000s, India won eight of twenty-nine matches against South Africa.

Gwalior's 401 and the Wankhede's 438

Total	Team	Overs	Result	Ground	Date
438/4	South Africa	50	won	Wankhede	25 Oct 2015
401/3	India	50	won	Gwalior	24 Feb 2010
365/2	South Africa	50	won	Ahmedabad	27 Feb 2010
362/6	South Africa	49.2	won	Raipur	3 Dec 2025
358/5	India	50	lost	Raipur	3 Dec 2025
358/4	South Africa	50	won	Johannesburg	5 Dec 2013
349/8	India	50	won	Ranchi	30 Nov 2025
332	South Africa	49.2	lost	Ranchi	30 Nov 2025
331/7	India	50	won	Cardiff	6 Jun 2013
326/5	India	50	won	Eden Gardens	5 Nov 2023

Two matches in the fixture have gone past 400. India's 401 for 3 at Gwalior on 24 February 2010 is the more famous, because Tendulkar's 200 not out was the first individual double hundred in one-day cricket, made off 147 balls with twenty-five fours and three sixes. India won by 153 runs.

South Africa's 438 for 4 at the Wankhede on 25 October 2015 is the higher total and the fixture's record: Quinton de Kock, Faf du Plessis and AB de Villiers all passed fifty, de Villiers making 119 from 61 balls, and South Africa won by 214 runs, the widest margin they have managed against India. It was the fifth and final match of a series South Africa took 3-2, which remains the last home series they have won against India in the format.

The Raipur match of 3 December 2025 is the highest-scoring in the fixture: India 358 for 5, South Africa 362 for 6 with four balls left, a 720-run aggregate. India's own list of biggest totals and margins is on the highest ODI team totals and biggest ODI wins by runs pages.

Where the batting has failed

Innings in which a side lost all ten wickets for fewer than 130.

Total	Team	Overs	Result	Ground	Date
83	South Africa	27.1	lost	Eden Gardens	5 Nov 2023
91	India	29.1	lost	Durban	22 Nov 2006
99	South Africa	27.1	lost	Delhi	11 Oct 2022
116	South Africa	27.3	lost	Johannesburg	17 Dec 2023
117	South Africa	48.0	lost	Nairobi (Gym)	26 Sep 1999

India have been dismissed under 130 once in ninety-seven matches, for 91 at Durban in November 2006, in a series they lost 4-0 — the only whitewash either side has inflicted in a bilateral rubber of four matches or more. South Africa have four such innings and three of them have come since October 2022.

The Nairobi entry is the oddest of the five. South Africa were bowled out for 117 in forty-eight overs — a run rate of 2.43 — with Sunil Joshi taking 5 for 6 from ten overs, six of them maidens. Those are the cheapest five-wicket figures either side has recorded in the fixture.

Batting: Kohli's 72, Tendulkar's 2,001

India's leading run scorers against South Africa in ODIs.

Batter	Span	Mat	Runs	HS	Ave	SR	100s
Sachin Tendulkar	1991-2011	57	2,001	200*	35.73	76.31	5
Virat Kohli	2010-2025	34	1,806	160*	72.24	89.76	7
Sourav Ganguly	1996-2007	29	1,313	141*	50.50	76.55	3
Rahul Dravid	1996-2007	36	1,309	84	39.66	66.54	0
Mohammad Azharuddin	1991-2000	33	1,109	90	35.77	69.74	0
Shikhar Dhawan	2013-2022	24	992	137	45.09	92.71	3
Rohit Sharma	2007-2025	29	952	150	35.25	85.99	3
MS Dhoni	2005-2019	37	830	92*	31.92	87.36	0

South Africa's leading run scorers against India.

Batter	Span	Mat	Runs	HS	Ave	SR	100s
Jacques Kallis	1996-2013	37	1,535	119*	61.40	72.37	2
Gary Kirsten	1995-2001	26	1,377	133*	62.59	76.62	4
AB de Villiers	2005-2018	32	1,357	119	48.46	111.13	6
Quinton de Kock	2013-2025	23	1,191	135	51.78	93.19	7
Herschelle Gibbs	1996-2010	30	1,064	116*	44.33	82.86	2
Hashim Amla	2010-2019	26	938	116*	37.52	84.96	2
Hansie Cronje	1992-2000	34	909	90	43.28	81.08	0

Virat Kohli's row is the most striking on the page. His 1,806 runs came at 72.24 — the highest average of any batter with a thousand runs in the fixture — with seven centuries in thirty-two innings and only two ducks. Tendulkar's 2,001 is the larger aggregate but took fifty-seven matches at 35.73, with five hundreds — one of which was the 200 at Gwalior.

Quinton de Kock's seven hundreds in twenty-three matches is the highest conversion rate on either list. AB de Villiers scored his 1,357 at a strike rate of 111.13 with forty-one sixes, more than any batter on either list, and Gary Kirsten's 62.59 is the best average of the 1990s cohort on either side. Three Indians — Dravid, Azharuddin and Dhoni — have passed 800 runs against South Africa without a century, which for a fixture this long is unusual. The generation of Indian middle-order batters that includes several of these names is covered on the great middle-order batters page.

Bowling: Kumble, Pollock, Kuldeep

India's leading wicket takers against South Africa in ODIs.

Bowler	Span	Mat	Wkts	Best	Ave	Econ
Anil Kumble	1992-2006	40	46	4/25	32.00	3.94
Kuldeep Yadav	2018-2025	16	36	4/18	17.58	4.95
Harbhajan Singh	2001-2015	24	31	3/27	31.74	4.45
Javagal Srinath	1991-2001	33	28	2/34	50.25	4.84
Venkatesh Prasad	1995-2001	20	25	4/27	31.12	4.42
Yuzvendra Chahal	2018-2022	10	22	5/22	20.90	5.04
Zaheer Khan	2000-2011	17	22	3/42	27.90	4.57
Sunil Joshi	1996-2000	14	20	5/6	28.20	4.62

South Africa's leading wicket takers against India.

Bowler	Span	Mat	Wkts	Best	Ave	Econ
Shaun Pollock	1996-2006	33	48	5/37	24.47	4.04
Allan Donald	1991-2002	26	46	5/29	21.15	4.05
Dale Steyn	2007-2015	18	34	5/50	22.44	4.95
Jacques Kallis	1996-2013	37	31	3/3	36.22	5.08
Lance Klusener	1996-2002	23	31	5/42	24.03	5.04
Morne Morkel	2010-2018	20	28	4/39	27.46	4.90
Makhaya Ntini	2000-2007	20	25	3/32	28.68	4.12

Anil Kumble's forty-six wickets took forty matches at 32.00. Kuldeep Yadav's thirty-six took sixteen at 17.58, with five four-wicket hauls — more than anyone else on either list has managed in the fixture, and the reason the 2018 series in South Africa turned out as it did. Yuzvendra Chahal's 5 for 22 in the same series is the best return by an Indian against South Africa in the format apart from Joshi's 5 for 6.

Allan Donald's 21.15 is the best average of any bowler with forty wickets here and Shaun Pollock's forty-eight the largest tally. Javagal Srinath's row runs the other way: thirty-three matches, twenty-eight wickets at 50.25, his worst return against any major opponent. Kallis's 3 for 3 is the strangest set of figures in either table.

The last ten matches

Most recent first.

Date	Ground	Result
6 Dec 2025	Visakhapatnam	India won by 9 wickets
3 Dec 2025	Raipur	South Africa won by 4 wickets
30 Nov 2025	Ranchi	India won by 17 runs
21 Dec 2023	Paarl	India won by 78 runs
19 Dec 2023	Gqeberha	South Africa won by 8 wickets
17 Dec 2023	Johannesburg	India won by 8 wickets
5 Nov 2023	Eden Gardens	India won by 243 runs
11 Oct 2022	Delhi	India won by 7 wickets
9 Oct 2022	Ranchi	India won by 7 wickets
6 Oct 2022	Lucknow	South Africa won by 9 runs

Seven India, three South Africa. Two of those ten were decided by fewer than twenty runs and two by more than seventy-five, which is close to the fixture's long-term distribution — it produces both, and rarely much in between.

Where the fixture actually stands

• South Africa lead 52-42, but almost the whole margin was built in one decade and one country: 20-9 in the 1990s, and 26-12 in South Africa across the fixture's life.
• India's record since 2010 is 22-17, and they have won three of the last four bilateral series in the fixture regardless of host.
• At ICC events India lead 7-3, including a 3-3 World Cup split that reads as three losses then three wins, and 4-0 in the Champions Trophy and its predecessor.
• Outside ICC events on neutral ground, India have won eight of twenty-nine, which is the weakest slice of the whole record.
• The individual extremes are wide apart. Tendulkar's 200 not out at Gwalior was the first ODI double century; South Africa's 438 for 4 at the Wankhede is the highest total either side has made against the other.
• Kohli's 72.24 against South Africa is the highest average of anyone with a thousand runs in the fixture, and de Kock's seven hundreds from twenty-three matches the fastest rate of century-making in it.

The Test record between the two, which South Africa lead and which turned sharply in 2025, is on the India versus South Africa Test head-to-head, and the Twenty20 record on the India versus South Africa T20I head-to-head. For the rest of India's international record and the domestic game beneath it, start from cricket in India.

Sources and method

The figures on this page were read from ESPNcricinfo's Statsguru, filtered to men's one-day internationals between India and South Africa, and checked on 20 August 2026. The most recent match at that date was the third of the 2025-26 series, at Visakhapatnam on 6 December 2025.

The venue split uses Statsguru's home, away and neutral classification, and its three rows sum to the overall line of 97 matches, 42 India wins, 52 South Africa wins and three no results. The decade table was built by grouping the full match-results list by year of start and reconciles with the same figures.

Eight scheduled fixtures produced no match — four abandoned and four cancelled — and they appear in the 105-fixture list but not in the 97-match ledger, which is why the two counts differ. The bilateral series table was assembled from the match-by-match result list rather than from a published series summary; its fifty-eight matches and 27-30 split, added to the thirty-nine tournament matches, reconcile with the overall ledger. Multi-team events in third countries, including Sharjah, Nairobi and the tri-series in India and South Africa, are counted as tournament matches rather than bilateral series.

The ICC-events table lists every World Cup, Champions Trophy and ICC KnockOut meeting. The low-totals table is restricted to innings in which a side lost all ten wickets for fewer than 130, so shortened and completed-chase innings below that mark are excluded. Batting and bowling tables are ordered by aggregate runs and wickets, and where the prose compares averages or economy rates it names the sample floor used — a thousand runs for batters, forty wickets for bowlers where stated — because a rate from ten matches and one from forty are not the same measurement. Nothing here was computed from ball-by-ball data, and the figures hold to the date given rather than permanently.